Kouz is fairly replaceable at this point, although Headley did look rusty out there. The Mariners make sense. They are losing Beltre for the season and then they’ll lose him through free agency after the season. My recollection of their prospects is that while they have a few good ones, none of them are major league ready 3B. As far as what we get in return, I think it would be underwhelming, but we need to make room for some players who will be cheaper and probably more talented than Kouzmanoff. That isn’t to say I wouldn’t be sorry to see him go, but I’m ever sorrier that he didn’t live up to his potential.

If I were to get optimistic about the return (without turning into a Cubs fan and demanding Greg Halman, Phillip Aumont or Michael Saunders, because if those guys were up for discussion this deal would already be done) I would want Juan Ramirez. He’s one of their top 10 prospects, but has struggled a little bit. He does pitch in High Desert this year (you know the place that Lake Elsinore scored 33 runs at) so his numbers are probably a little distorted, but he’s also a young guy (almost 21) that scouts like and is already in High A. Another guy would be Michael Pineda, who is also very young (20) and is in High A, but hasn’t pitched much this year (6 G). And another is Mikael Cleto, who is even younger and working his way through the lower levels of the Mariners minor league system.

Quit trying to be our friend. We shared Chris Burke for awhile, and that was fine… I guess… but if you take Kouz off our hands, we’re going to find it even harder to hate you.

Gawd, they’re so polite, it’s annoying. They’re like Canada.

Towers always gets his man.